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Despite the game’s massive popularity, the botting issue has raised concerns about its sustainability and fairness.
Banana, a simple clicker game developed by indie studio Banana Games, has seen a sudden increase in players, recently surpassing 770,000 concurrent users. It has surpassed popular titles like Dota 2, GTA 5, and PUBG in terms of player count on Steam. However, this massive rise has brought with it a significant issue: the majority of these players are not humans but bots.
In a recent interview with Polygon, the developer team confirmed the botting crisis, revealing that Banana’s minimal resource demands have made it an attractive target for exploitation. Its simplistic gameplay involves clicking on an on-screen banana to accumulate more bananas, with the chance to earn and sell various rare skins adding a layer of excitement.
Team member Hery told Polygon that only 141,000 of these users are actual players. This has caused alarm within the gaming community. The developer explains:
“Since the game takes basically 1% to no resources of your PC, people are abusing up to 1,000 alternative accounts to get rarer drops or at least drops in bulk.”
Cashing in an Easy Market
These bots are being deployed by individuals seeking to cash in on the profitable market for rare banana skins. Interestingly, some of these digital items, including the coveted Special Golden Banana, have been sold for over $1,000 on the Steam marketplace.
This situation has led to what the developers describe as a “legal infinite money glitch”, with users setting up multiple fake profiles to farm and sell these high-value items.
Initially launched as an April Fool’s Day joke, the Banana game suddenly gained huge popularity this year. The developer team, a small group of four people spread across South America to Germany, has capitalized on this success through the Banana item store.
Despite the game’s massive popularity, the botting issue has raised concerns about its sustainability and fairness. The ease with which bots can exploit the game’s mechanics threatens to undermine its integrity and the experience of genuine players.
Valve, the company that operates Steam, has yet to respond, but many in the community speculate that a few important updates may be necessary. Meanwhile, the developers emphasize the importance of community and are reportedly planning new features to keep the game engaging and address the current issues.
Banana developer Hery has indicated forthcoming updates for the game, including features that allow players to customize their banana’s appearance using collected items. Plans also include potentially adding a minigame and implementing a system for exchanging multiples of bananas for other items. Moreover, users have the opportunity to submit their own banana art for consideration, with numerous designs already shared on the Banana Discord community platform.
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